The design and fabrication of micrometer scale surface relief elements is a mature and highly flexible technology. Current fabrication techniques involve laser writing and electron beam writing of masks, followed by photolithography and etching, or direct laser and e-beam writing. For example, Mohammad R. Taghizadeh et al, IEEE Micro Volume 14, Number 6, pp. 10-19, December 1994, describes a technique for making diffractive optical elements. However, these known techniques have limited resolutions. This means that many small-scale devices cannot be fabricated easily. In addition, most known technology is not suitable for relatively high throughput applications.